EVANSVILLE, Ind. --- In its first mid-week match of the season, the Tennessee State volleyball team fell to the Evansville Purple Aces in a heart-wrenching five-set match (25-14, 25-17, 27-29, 23-25, 15-4).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

JoJo Kruize recorded her career-high 14 kills and tied for team-high with Rachel Henderson.

Laken Te’o posted her sixth double-double of the season with 29 assists and 11 digs. She surpassed 100 digs as a Tiger, summing 101 entering conference play.

Three Tigers posted double-digit digs, led by Rivera Ortiz 17, followed by Destiny Washington 15 and Te’o 11.

TSU had a rough first two sets. The Tigers hit for negatives in both sets, and with the lack of offensive power, allowed the Purple Aces to score six service aces, 22 digs, three blocks and average a .212 to beat out TSU 25-14 and 25-17 in set one and two, respectively.

The heart of the team showed up in set three. The Tigers tied the score 16 times thanks to the defense. TSU combined for 21 digs and three blocks. UE was up 24-20 with the end of the match in sight. Aria Holmes came up with a kill. Henderson and Fihaki combined for a block, forcing Evansville to take a timeout. Rachel Tam, Evansville’s leading scorer went up for a kill, and made an error, putting the Tigers within one point of UE. Washington, who had been serving for TSU served an ace to tie it. Going to extra points, Purple Aces had back-to-back attack errors, Kruize put down two kills and TSU won the set 29-27 on an error.

On a high, the Tigers played through the fourth set with confidence, hitting a match-high .286 and rejecting three UE attacks. Kruize scored 5 kills and Washington was a force in the backcourt with seven digs. TSU pushed to 25, leaving UE at 23 for the set.

Big Blue failed to start in the final set as Evansville first went on a six-point run, followed by a three-point run. TSU had only three kills, allowing UE to improve to 6-4 on the season with a 15-4 final set score.

MATCH NOTES

TSU is now 0-2 in the all-time series against the Purple Aces.

This is the second match of the season where TSU dropped the first two sets, came back in the third and fourth, to force a fifth set.

The Tigers are now 2-8 on the season moving into conference play.

Big Blue has posted double-digit blocks in six of the ten matches this season.